Charles Saatchi has said he is filing divorce proceedings against wife Nigella
Lawson, four weeks after he was pictured grabbing the television chef by the
throat during an argument.

The multi-millionaire art collector, 70, said he made the “heartbreaking” decision to formally split from his wife of 10 years because she refused to defend his reputation after he was seen grabbing her outside Scott’s restaurant in London.

He told the Mail on Sunday: "I am sorry to announce that Nigella Lawson and I are getting divorced.

"I feel that I have clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so, and I am disappointed that she was advised to make no public comment to explain that I abhor violence of any kind against women, and have never abused her physically in any way."

Mr Saatchi is said by the paper not to have spoken to his wife since the pictures were published.

The advertising tycoon said: "This is heartbreaking for both of us as our love was very deep, but in the last year we have become estranged and drifted apart... The row photographed at Scott’s restaurant could equally have been Nigella grasping my neck to hold my attention – as indeed she has done in the past."